That's Just What We Needed - Ireland

Stephen Ireland was delighted to see Villa gain their first competitive win of the season last night against Tranmere, but knows we have to push on from that against Newcastle.

Speaking to the Official Site Ireland said Villa needed to use that result, and the way we played, as a benchmark for how we approach the rest of the season.

'It was a good night. The victory was a great positive to take into the game against Newcastle. We really wanted it, the performance and goals were vital. It's just what we needed.'

There are certainly plenty of positives to take from it, even though we should've expected the win given the opposition - but you can only beat what is in front of you and we did that convincingly - but the best positive must be the way the goals were shared around and the number of chances we did create. On another night it could've been 6-0 and Weimann could've had at least a brace to boot.

So whilst it's good for confidence and it should give everybody a lift, what counts in the weekend and getting our league season started. Lose to Newcastle, and last night won't mean much to many fans.

But people have to remember it's early days for Lambert, and as has been said all along change won't happen overnight. The kicker was Everton because there were no positives, whereas their were plenty against West Ham, let's hope Everton was the aberration.